Appointment and payment handling

ABSTRACT

An appointment and payment handling system may operate to handle payments for appointments. In advance of an appointment, the appointment and payment handling system may send a reminder to customer devices of the customers associated with the appointment, and then receive a response that includes a requested change to the appointment. The requested change may comprise a net increase in the number of customers associated with the appointment and an updated cost-splitting arrangement for dividing appointment costs between the customers. The appointment and payment handling system may seek and receive approval of the change from the merchant. Upon determining that the appointment is completed, the appointment and payment handling system may process payment based at least in part on the updated cost-splitting arrangement.

BACKGROUND

Providers of services and goods often interact with customers based on aschedule of appointments or similar scheduling items (e.g. reservationsat restaurants, waitlists for salons, etc.). For example, restaurantsmay take reservations for parties of customers on certain dates andtimes. In another example, an instructor of a yoga class may havereserved slots for respective customers in each class session. Managingappointments (e.g. creating appointments, updating appointments inresponse to customer requests or changes in the merchant's schedule) andhandling payments from customers to the merchants may represent asignificant burden on the merchant. For example, the instructor of theabove mentioned yoga class may find tasks such as keeping track ofappointment change requests, attendance of his customers to the sessionsand replacing customers that cancel by offering the appointment slots ofthe cancelations to other customers to be difficult.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures, in which the left-most digit of a reference number identifiesthe figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of thesame reference numbers in the same or different figures indicatessimilar or identical items or features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for handling appointments andpayments among customers and merchants.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process the handling ofappointment creation in the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for handlingpayments from users to merchants based at least in part on appointmentsand customer locations in the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for handlingthe rescheduling of a no-show customer on behalf of a merchant in thesystem shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for handlingchange requests to existing appointments in the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process in the systemshown in FIG. 1 for handling referrals of appointments from an initial,requested merchant to merchants recommended by the requested merchant.The appointments to be referred may be pre-existing or newly requestedappointments.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process in the systemshown in FIG. 1 for providing suggestions to merchants of potentialcustomers to which to offer unbooked appointment slots.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for handlingcustomer requests for services from merchants in the system shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for handlingmerchant requests for bids for the merchant's services from users in thesystem shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes systems and processes for handlingappointments and payments among customers and merchants. In someexamples herein, the system may allow for payment processing based onappointments and customer locations. For instance, the techniques hereinmay include determining if a customer is present at a locationassociated with the appointment and creating a payment record (i.e. abilling item) for the customer for the service associated with theappointment.

In addition, the system may provide for handling of changes inpreviously made appointments prior to the appointment time. Forinstance, four customers may have a reservation with a restaurant withan equal bill splitting arrangement. One of the customers may requestthe addition of two more customers to the reservation. The system mayoperate to verify that the change is available, for example, bycontacting the merchant or automatically by analyzing information knownabout the merchant or obtained from a device of the merchant. If thechange is available, the system may implement the change on behalf ofthe customer and merchant.

Moreover, the system may provide for handling referrals on behalf of amerchant. For example, a merchant may be unable to fulfill theappointment or may be unable to accept an appointment request. In such acase, the merchant may be asked to identify (or may have previouslyidentified) one or more other merchants to which to refer theappointment request. The system may then determine which of the othermerchants is available from the other merchants' scheduling information(i.e. the system may maintain or query the other merchants' schedulinginformation). The system may then provide the customer initiallyrequesting the appointment with identification of the available othermerchants recommended by the merchant the customer initially desired.

Additionally, the system may determine unbooked appointment slots of amerchant's schedule that the merchant may desire to fill. For example,the system may analyze customer information (e.g. schedule, task list,current location, etc.) and/or the history of customer interactionsbetween the customers and the merchant to determine customers that maybe interested in the unbooked appointment slots. The merchant may bepresented with the determined customer and may make the offer to thecustomer manually or the system may offer the appointment slot to thecustomer automatically.

Details of these and other example implementations are described below.This brief introduction is provided for the reader's convenience and isnot intended to limit the scope of the claims. Furthermore, thetechniques described above and below may be implemented in a number ofways and in a number of contexts. Several example implementations andcontexts are provided with reference to the following figures, asdescribed below in more detail. However, the following implementationsand contexts are but a few of many. For example, though discussed hereinin the context of an appointment and payment handling system,implementations are not so limited.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 for handling appointments andpayments among customers and merchants. As shown in FIG. 1, the system100 may include one or more user(s) 102 (e.g. customers), one or moreuser device(s) 104 associated with the user(s) 102, one or moremerchants 106, one or more merchant devices 108 associated with the oneor more merchants 106, one or more network(s) 110, and one or morecomputing device(s) 112. In various implementations, the user(s) 102 mayoperate the user device(s) 104, which may include one or moreprocessor(s) 114, computer-readable media 116 and a display 118. Thecomputer-readable media 116 may store an appointment interface module120 and a location module 122. Similarly, the merchant(s) 106 mayoperate the merchant device(s) 108, which may include one or moreprocessor(s) 124, computer-readable media 126 and a display 128. Thecomputer-readable media 126 may store an appointment interface module130. The computing device(s) 112 may also include one or moreprocessor(s) 132 and computer-readable media 134, which may store a userinteraction module 136, a merchant interaction module 138, anappointment and payment module 140, a natural language processing module142 and a database 144. In various implementations, the computingdevice(s) 112 may be, for example, computing device(s) physicallylocated in the merchant buildings (e.g. in a shared space of one or moremerchants), networked computing device(s) of a service company, or maybe cloud services.

In some implementations, one of the users 102 may operate a user device104 to perform various functions associated with the user device 104.For example, a user of the user(s) 102 may utilize the user device 104,and particularly the appointment interaction module 120 thereof, tointeract with the computing devices 112. The location module 122 may beutilized to determine the location of the user device at any given time.

In some implementations, the user device 104 may be any type of devicethat is capable of interacting with the computing device(s) 112. Forinstance, the user device 104 may include a personal computer, a laptopcomputer, a cellular telephone, a PDA, a tablet device, or any otherdevice. The user device 104 shown in FIG. 1 is only one example of auser device 104 and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to thescope of use or functionality of any user device 104 utilized to performthe processes and/or procedures described herein. For example, the userdevice 104 may include various other applications or modules, such asfor a user dashboard to enable the user to control information in auser's profile, set user preferences, and so forth.

The processor(s) 114 of the user device 104 may execute one or moremodules and/or processes to cause the user device 104 to perform avariety of functions, as set forth above and explained in further detailin the following disclosure. In some implementations, the processor(s)114 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processingunit (GPU), both CPU and GPU, or other processing units or componentsknown in the art. Additionally, each of the processor(s) 114 may possessits own local memory, which also may store program modules, programdata, and/or one or more operating systems.

Depending on the exact configuration and type of the user device 104,the computer-readable media 116 may include volatile memory (such asRAM), non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory, miniature harddrive, memory card, or the like), or some combination thereof.

In various implementations, the user device 104 may also have inputdevice(s) such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a voice input device, atouch input device, etc. The user device 104 may also include thedisplay 118 and other output device(s), such as speakers, a printer,etc. The user 102 may utilize the foregoing features to interact withthe user device 104 or the computing device(s) 112 via the network(s)110. More particularly, the display 118 of the user device 104 mayinclude any type of display 118 known in the art that is configured topresent (e.g., display) information to the users 102.

In various implementations, the one or more merchants 106 may be anyindividual, entity, or machine that offers services or the likeaccording to the examples herein. Moreover, each of the merchants 106may be associated with one or more merchant devices 108, which may bethe same as, similar to, or different from the user devices 104. Themerchant devices 108 may include any number of components such as theone or more processor(s) 124, the computer-readable media 126, and/orthe display 128. The merchants 106 may utilize the merchant devices 108to interact with the computing device(s) 112 in any manner. Forinstance, the merchant devices 108 may be used to access an interfaceassociated with the computing device(s) 112 (e.g. the appointmentinterface module 130).

While the user devices 104 and merchant devices 108 are shown asincluding different modules, this is merely for ease of illustration andnot intended as limiting. In various implementations, the user devices104 and merchant devices 108 may be identical, similar or distinct.Moreover, the modules shown and described for the user devices 104 andmerchant devices 108 may be implement as more modules or as fewermodules and functions described for the modules may be redistributeddepending on the details of the implementation. Further, in someimplementations, the user devices 104 and/or merchant devices 108 mayvary from device to device. In general, the user devices 104 and themerchant devices 108 can each be any appropriate device operable to sendand receive requests, messages, or other types of information over theone or more networks 110 or directly to each other. Additionally, insome implementation, there may be thousands, hundreds of thousands, ormore, of the user devices 104 and the merchant devices 108.

In some implementations, the network(s) 110 may be any type of networkknown in the art, such as a local area network or a wide area network,such as the Internet, and may include a wireless network, such as acellular network, a local wireless network, such as Wi-Fi and/orclose-range wireless communications, such as Bluetooth® and Bluetooth®low energy, a wired network, or any other such network, or anycombination thereof. Accordingly, the one or more networks 110 mayinclude both wired and/or wireless communication technologies, includingBluetooth®, Bluetooth® low energy, Wi-Fi and cellular communicationtechnologies, as well as wired or fiber optic technologies. Componentsused for such communications can depend at least in part upon the typeof network, the environment selected, or both. Protocols forcommunicating over such networks are well known and will not bediscussed herein in detail. Consequently, the user devices 104, themerchant devices 108, and the computing device(s) 112 maycommunicatively couple to the network(s) 110 in any manner, such as by awired or wireless connection. The network(s) 110 may also facilitatecommunication between the user devices 104, the merchant devices 108,and the computing device(s) 112.

In addition, and as mentioned previously, the computing device(s) 112may include the one or more processor(s) 132 and the computer-readablemedia 134. The computing device(s) 112 may also include additionalcomponents not listed above that may perform any function associatedwith the computing device(s) 112. In various implementations, thecomputing device(s) 112 may be any type of computing device, such as anetwork-accessible server, and may be one of multiple servers includedin a server cluster or server farm. In other implementations, theprocessor(s) 132 and the computer-readable media 134 of the computingdevice(s) 112 may be the same as, similar to, or different from theprocessor(s) 114 and the computer-readable media 116, respectively, ofthe user device(s) 104. As discussed above, the computer-readable media134 may store the user interaction module 136, the merchant interactionmodule 138, the appointment and payment module 140, the natural languageprocessing module 142 and the database 144. The database 144 may storevarious information including appointment information 146 of themerchants, customer information 148, and customer interaction historyinformation 150.

The user interaction module 136 and merchant interaction module 138operate to interface with the user devices 104 and merchant devices 108,respectively. For example, the modules 136 and 138 may operate inaccordance with instructions from the appointment and payment module 140to request or provide information on behalf of the appointment andpayment module 140. The appointment and payment module 140 may handlethe creation, modification and the like of appointments and handle theprocessing of payments related to the appointments. For example, theappointment and payment module 140 may utilize the user interactionmodule 136 and the merchant interaction module 138 to handlecommunication with the user 102 and merchant 106, respectively.Communications from the users 102 and/or merchants 106 may be processedusing the natural language processing module 142. In addition, theappointment and payment module 140 may utilize information from thedatabase 144, such as the appointment information 146 of the merchants,the customer information 148, and the customer interaction historyinformation 150 to provide handling of appointments and payments betweenmerchants and users. In some implementations, the customer information148 may include information regarding electronic payment accounts of thecustomers (e.g. users 102).

As mentioned above, the appointment and payment module 140 may handlepayments between merchants and users. When paying for a transaction, auser 102 can provide the amount of payment that is due to a merchant 106using cash, check, a payment card, NFC, or by electronic payment througha payment service of the computing devices 112. The merchant 106 caninteract with the merchant device 108 to process the transaction. Insome examples, the service of the computing devise 112 may handleappointments but payments may at least at times be handled by point ofsale (POS) transactions. In such cases, the point of sale may be theplace where the user 102 with user device 104 meets merchant 106 withmerchant device 108 at the appointment time. During point-of-sale (POS)transactions, the merchant device 108 can determine and send datadescribing the transactions, including, for example, appointment data,services related to and/or provided as a part of the appointment,item(s) being purchased in connection with the appointment, the amountof the item(s), buyer information, and so forth.

In some implementations, the payment service enables card-less payments,i.e., electronic payments, for transactions between the users 102 andthe merchants 106 based on interaction of the user 102 with the userdevice 104 and interaction of the merchant 106 with the merchant device108. Accordingly, in some examples, a card-less payment transaction mayinclude a transaction conducted between a user 102 and a merchant 106 ata POS location during which an electronic payment account of the user102 is charged without the user 102 having to physically present apayment card to the merchant 106 at the POS location. Consequently, themerchant 106 need not receive any details about the financial account ofthe user 102 for the transaction to be processed. As one example, theelectronic payment may be charged to a credit card issuer or credit cardnumber that the user 102 provided when signing up with the service ofthe computing devices 112 for an electronic payment account. As anotherexample, the user 102 may have a quantity of money pre-paid in anaccount maintained for use in making the electronic payments. Othervariations will also be apparent to those of skill in the art having thebenefit of the disclosure herein.

Before conducting an electronic payment transaction, the user 102typically creates a user account with the service of the computingdevices 112. The user 102 can create the user account, for example, byinteracting with an application of the user device 104 that isconfigured to perform electronic payment transactions and that mayexecute on the user device 104. When creating an electronic paymentaccount with the service of the computing devices 112, the user 102 mayprovide an image including the face of the user, data describing afinancial account of the user 102 (e.g., a credit card number,expiration date), and a billing address. This user information can besecurely stored by the computing devices 112, for example, in thecustomer information 148 in the database 144. Further, the customerinteraction history information 150 may be created for each user 102,which may include information about the user and transactions conductedby the user.

To accept electronic payments for POS transactions, the merchant 106 maycreate a merchant account with the service of the computing devices byproviding information describing the merchant including, for example, amerchant name, contact information, e.g., telephone numbers, themerchant's geographic location address, and one or more financialaccounts to which funds collected from users will be deposited. Thismerchant information can be securely stored by the service, for example,in the database 144 along with the appointment information 146. Further,a merchant profile may be created for each merchant, which may includeinformation about the merchant and transactions conducted by themerchant.

The service of the computing devices 112 may be configured to enableelectronic payments for transactions. The computing devices 112 caninclude one or more servers that are configured to perform securelyelectronic financial transactions, e.g., electronic payments fortransactions between a user and a merchant, for example, through datacommunicated between the user device 104 and the merchant device 108.Generally, when a user and a merchant enter into an electronic paymenttransaction, the transaction is processed by electronically transferringfunds from a financial account associated with the user account to afinancial account associated with the merchant account.

The appointment and payment module 140 may be configured to send andreceive data to and from the user device 104 and the merchant device108. For example, the appointment and payment module 140 can beconfigured to send information describing merchants to an application onthe user device 104 using, for example, the information stored in thedatabase 144. For example, the appointment and payment module 140 cancommunicate data describing merchants 106 that are within a thresholdgeographic distance from a geographic location of the user device 104.The data describing the merchants 106 can include, for example, amerchant name, geographic location, contact information, and anelectronic catalogue, e.g., a menu that describes appointments that areavailable for scheduling with the merchant.

In some embodiments, the appointment and payment module 140 isconfigured to determine whether a geographic location of the user device104 is within a threshold geographic distance from a geographic locationof the merchant device 108. The appointment and payment module 140 candetermine a geographic location of the user device 104 using, forexample, geolocation data provided by the user device 104. Similarly,the appointment and payment module 140 can determine a geographiclocation of the merchant device 108 using, for example, geolocation dataprovided by the merchant device 108 or using a geographic address, e.g.,street address, provided by the merchant. Depending on theimplementation, the threshold geographic distance can be specified bythe appointment and payment module 140, by the user, or by the merchant.

Determining whether the user device 104 is within a threshold geographicdistance of the merchant device 108 can be accomplished in differentways including, for example, determining whether the user device 104 iswithin a threshold geographic radius of the merchant device 108,determining whether the user device 104 is within a particular geofence,or determining whether the user device 104 can communicate with themerchant device 108 using a specified wireless technology, e.g.,Bluetooth® or Bluetooth® low energy (BLE). In some embodiments, theappointment and payment module 140 restricts electronic paymenttransactions between the user 102 and the merchant 106 to situationswhere the geographic location of the user device 104 is within athreshold geographic distance from a geographic location of the merchantdevice 108.

The computing devices 112 can also be configured to communicate with oneor more computing devices 152 of a card payment network (e.g.,MasterCard®, VISA®) over the one or more networks 110 to conductfinancial transactions electronically. The computing devices 112 canalso communicate with one or more bank computing devices 154 of one ormore banks over the one or more networks 110. For example, the computingdevices 112 may communicate with an acquiring bank, and/or an issuingbank, and/or a bank maintaining user accounts for electronic payments.

An acquiring bank may be a registered member of a card association(e.g., Visa®, MasterCard®), and may be part of a card payment network.An issuing bank may issue payment cards to users, and may pay acquiringbanks for purchases made by cardholders to which the issuing bank hasissued a payment card. Accordingly, in some examples, the computingdevice(s) of an acquiring bank may be included in the card paymentnetwork and may communicate with the computing devices of a card-issuingbank to obtain payment. Further, in some examples, the user may use adebit card instead of a credit card, in which case, the bank computingdevice(s) of a bank corresponding to the debit card may receivecommunications regarding a transaction in which the user isparticipating. Additionally, there may be computing devices of otherfinancial institutions involved in some types of transactions or inalternative system architectures, and thus, the foregoing are merelyseveral examples for discussion purposes.

The user 102 operating the user device 104 that is within a thresholdgeographic distance of the merchant device 108 can interact with anapplication executed on the user device 104 to conduct an electronicpayment transaction with the merchant 106. While interacting with theapplication, the user 102 can select the merchant 106, from a listing ofmerchants 106, with whom the user wants to enter into an electronicpayment transaction. The user 102 can select the merchant 106, forexample, by selecting a “check in” option associated with the merchant106. The user device 104 can communicate data to the computing devices112 indicating that the user 102 has checked in with the merchant 106.In response, the computing devices 112 can communicate data to notifythe merchant device 106 that the user has checked in. An applicationexecuting on the merchant device 108 can notify the merchant 106 thatthe user has electronically checked in with the merchant 106 through adisplay of the merchant device 108.

Once checked in, the user 102 can receive, obtain or request items,services or appointments that are available to be acquired from themerchant 106. When the user 102 is ready to enter into the card-lesspayment transaction, the user 102 can, for example, approach a point ofsale for the merchant 106 and identify him or herself. For example, theuser 102 can verbally notify the merchant 106 that the user 102 wants toenter into a card-less payment transaction and can provide the merchant106 with the user's name. The merchant 106 can then interact with theapplication executing on the merchant's device to select the user 102,from a listing of users that have checked in with the merchant 106, toinitiate an electronic payment transaction for the item(s) beingacquired by the user 102. For example, the merchant 106 can determine atotal amount to charge the user for the item(s) being acquired. The usercan verbally approve the total amount to be paid and, in response, themerchant 106 can submit a request for an electronic payment transactionfor the total amount of the transaction to the computing devices 112. Inresponse, the computing devices 112 can obtain, for example, from thecustomer information 148, data describing a financial account associatedwith the electronic purchase account of the user 102 to which the totalamount will be charged.

The computing devices 112 can then communicate with the computing device152 of a card payment network to complete an electronic paymenttransaction for the total amount to be charged to user's electronicpayment account. Once the electronic payment transaction is complete,the computing devices 112 can communicate data describing the electronicpayment for the transaction to the user device 104, e.g., as anelectronic receipt, which can, for example, notify the user 102 of thetotal amount charged to the user for the electronic payment for thetransaction with the particular merchant. Further, while a mobile userdevice 104 is described in this example for purposes of explanation,additional or alternative types of devices may be used in otherexamples.

In addition, the payment service implemented by the appointment andpayment module 140 of the computing devices 112 may operate to performpayment processing in a similar manner to that described above based onthe appointments, for example, without requiring interaction of themerchant or the user. Such an example payment process is describedbelow.

The payment service may store appointment information includingidentification of the merchant 106, the merchant device 108 of themerchant 106, the user 102, the user device 104 of the user 102,services and/or items associated with the appointment, a location of theappointment, a time of the appointment, and so on. At the time of anappointment, the payment service may request information from the userdevice 104 and/or the merchant device 108 to determine whether the userdevice 104 is within a threshold geographic distance of the merchantdevice 108 or the location of the appointment. Alternatively, the userdevice 104 and/or the merchant device 108 may be instructed to make thedistance determination. Based on the distance determination, the paymentservice may “check-in” the user with the merchant for the appointment(e.g. when the user device 104 is within the threshold geographicdistance of the merchant device 108 or the location of the appointment).Application(s) executing on one or more of the user device 104 and themerchant device 108 can notify the user 102 and/or merchant 106 that theuser 102 has been electronically checked in with the merchant 106 by thepayment service.

Once checked in, the user 102 can receive, obtain, or request the itemsor services associated with the appointment. Subsequently, the computingdevices 112 may determine that the appointment has been completed andmay conduct an electronic payment transaction between the user 102 andthe merchant 106. For example, the computing devices 112 may determinethe end of an appointment based on a determination that the user device104 has left the geographic threshold distance from the merchant device108 or the location of the appointment or a scheduled end time of theappointment. The computing devices 112 may then communicate with thecomputing device 152 of a card payment network to complete an electronicpayment transaction for the total amount to be charged to user'selectronic payment account and credited to, for example, an account ofthe merchant 106. Once the electronic payment transaction is complete,the computing devices 112 can communicate data describing the electronicpayment for the transaction to the user device 104 and the merchantdevice 108, e.g., as an electronic receipt, which can, for example,notify the user 102 and merchant 106 of the total amount charged to theuser for the electronic payment for the transaction with the merchant.

Additional details and example functionalities of the appointment andpayment module 140 and the computing devices 112 as a whole arediscussed below with regard to FIGS. 2-9.

As mentioned above, the operations of modules 136-144 may vary dependingon functionality provided by the particular implementation. As such, theimplementations are not limited to the example provided above. Detailsof the operation of the computing devices 112 is provided in the belowdiscussion of FIGS. 2-9. Further, the example processes are described inthe context of the environment of FIG. 1 but are not limited to thoseenvironments. Each process described in this disclosure is illustratedas a logical flow graph, each operation of which represents a sequenceof operations that can be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. In the context of software, the operationsrepresent computer-executable instructions stored on one or morecomputer-readable media or embodied as one or more computer transmissionmedia that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the recitedoperations. Generally, computer-executable instructions includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the likethat perform particular functions or implement particular abstract datatypes.

The computer-readable media may include non-transitory computer-readablestorage media, which may include hard drives, floppy diskettes, opticaldisks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories(RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash memory, magnetic or optical cards,solid-state memory devices, or other types of storage media suitable forstoring electronic instructions. In some implementations, the computertransmission media may include a transitory computer-readable signal (incompressed or uncompressed form). Examples of computer-readable signals,whether modulated using a carrier or not, include, but are not limitedto, signals that a computer system hosting or running a computer programcan be configured to access, including signals downloaded through theInternet or other networks. Finally, the order in which the operationsare described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and anynumber of the described operations can be combined in any order and/orin parallel to implement the process.

Prior to providing a detailed discussion of the acts involved in theprocesses 200-900, an example scenario may be provided to give context.These scenarios are merely examples and should not be construed aslimiting the implementations.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 200 for thehandling of appointment creation in the system shown in FIG. 1. Thefollowing actions described with respect to FIG. 2 may be performed bythe computing devices 112 shown in FIG. 1.

For context, process 200 may be utilized in the following scenario. Auser (e.g. a customer) may wish to book an appointment with a merchant106. To do so, the user may utilize the appointment interface module120. For example, the user may indicate the merchant, type of serviceand time the user desires using a user interface provided by theappointment interface module 120. The following acts of process 200 maybe performed to process the received appointment request.

At 202, the user interaction module 136 of the computing devices 112 mayreceive an appointment request from a user device 104. In someimplementations, the appointment request may indicate a merchant (e.g. amerchant identifier), a time for the appointment and so on.

At 204, the appointment and payment module 140 may utilize theappointment information 146 of the merchant stored in the database 144to determine if the appointment is available for the merchant at theindicated time. If the appointment is not available, the process maycontinue to 206. At 206, the appointment and payment module 140 maynotify the user that the appointment is unavailable. If the appointmentis available, the process may continue to 208.

At 208, the appointment and payment module 140 may load additionalinformation for the appointment, such as the location, price, and so onfor the appointment. At 210, the appointment and payment module 140 maygenerate and store an appointment record for the new appointmentincluding user identification, merchant identification, a location, aprice and/or a time for the appointment.

The process 200 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. Numerous other variations are possible.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 300 forhandling payments from users (or customers) to merchants based at leastin part on the appointments and customer locations. For instance, theprocess of FIG. 3 may, if a customer is present at a location associatedwith the appointment at a time associated with the appointment, create apayment record (i.e. a billing item) for the customer. The process ofFIG. 3 may further provide for maximizing the number of completedappointments by scheduling new customers when previously madeappointments are missed or canceled. The following actions describedwith respect to FIG. 3 may be performed by the computing devices 112shown in FIG. 1.

For context, process 300 may be utilized in the following scenario. Ayoga instructor is offering classes in the park. Customers of the yogainstructor may create appointments for the classes using the processdescribed above with regard FIG. 2. The yoga instructor may instruct thecomputing devices 112 to handle payment processing automatically forcustomers having appointments that are present during the appointmenttime. Further, the process 300 may provide for inviting new customers toclasses to replace “no-show” customers.

At 302, the computing device(s) 112 determines if the current time isduring a time associated with an appointment being analyzed and that thecurrent appointment has not been analyzed for longer than a thresholdamount of time. In some implementations, the threshold amount of timemay be used to limit the frequency that the appointments are checked toa desired frequency level (e.g. once per minute or less, once per tenminutes or less, etc.). If not, the process continues to 304, at whichpoint, a next appointment is loaded. If so, the process continues to306.

At 306, the appointment and payment module 140 may utilize the userinteraction module 136 to query the location module 122 of the userdevices of users associated with the appointment being analyzed. Thoughnot shown, the location module 122 of the user devices 104 may utilizeone or more known location techniques such as proximity to a Bluetoothlow energy device (e.g. of a merchant device or of a device located in aknown location), global positioning system data, geolocation data, celltower location data, wireless access point location data, wirelessbeacon location data, and so forth

At 308, the appointment and payment module 142 may add or update apayment record for users of the user devices that are detected in thelocation associated with the appointment. For instance, the techniquesherein may include determining if a customer is present at a locationassociated with the appointment and creating a payment record (i.e. abilling item) for the customer for the service associated with theappointment. Such a payment transaction may be processed as describedabove with regard to FIG. 1.

At 310, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine the users102 associated with the appointment that are not located in the locationassociated with the appointment (i.e. no-shows). At 312, the appointmentand payment module 140 may choose the next customer listed in a waitlistincluded in the appointment information 150 to which to offer theappointment of the no-show user. Though the implementation discussedherein utilizes a waitlist, in some implementations, the appointment andpayment module 140 may ascertain the customers that appears most likelyto accept the appointment and may or may not rely on a waitlist. Such adetermination may be made based on many factors such as distance betweenthe customers' current location and the location of the appointment,scheduling information of the customer and/or customer interactionhistory information. For example, the appointment and payment module 140may determine that customers whose current location is within walkingdistance of the location of the appointment to be more likely to acceptthe appointment than customers outside walking distance. In anotherexample, the appointment and payment module 140 may eliminate fromconsideration customers whose scheduling information indicates that thecustomer is busy or will be busy before an estimated end of theappointment (e.g. the customer may have another appointment in thirty(30) minutes where the desired service, e.g. a haircut, is estimated totake forty-five (45) minutes). Additionally, depending on varioussettings of the system or preferences of the merchant, the appointmentand payment module 140 may utilize customer interaction historyinformation and determine the customer to offer the appointment based onpast interaction between the respective customers and the merchant. Moreparticularly, the settings or preferences may cause the appointment andpayment module 140 to offer appointments of no-show customers to othercustomers having some threshold level of past interaction with themerchant, e.g. at least three prior visits. Alternatively, in someexamples, the settings or preferences may indicate that appointments ofno-show customers should be offered to customers with no priorinteraction with the merchant (e.g. new customers). These are merelyexamples and many variations would be apparent in view of thisdisclosure.

At 314, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine details ofthe offer of the appointment (e.g., whether a discount should beoffered) and send the determined offer to the waitlist user.

At 316, the appointment and payment module 140 determines if anacceptance has been received from the wait list user. If so, the processmoves to 318 and a record for the replacement appointment is recordedfor the waitlist user. If no acceptance is received or the waitlist userdeclines the appointment, the process returns to 312 and a differentwaitlist user is selected (if possible).

The process 300 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. For example, the implementation discussed abovequeries device locations during the appointment times. In otherimplementations, the “trigger” for the payment processing may be userdevice generated in a push manner. For example, the user device 104 maypush a notification to the computing device(s) 112 indicating that theuser device 104 has entered a geolocation associated with an appointmentof the user 102. In addition, the user device 104 may push anotification to the computing device(s) 112 indicating that the userdevice 104 has exited the geolocation. The pushed notifications maytrigger the process to create payment records for the appointments.Numerous other variations are possible.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 400 forhandling the rescheduling of a no-show user for a merchant. Thefollowing actions described with respect to FIG. 4 may be performed bythe computing device 112 as shown in FIG. 1 and may follow or beperformed in relation to the process 300.

For context, process 400 may be utilized in the scenario described abovewith regard to FIG. 3. One or more users have been determined by process300 to be “no-shows” of the yoga instructor based on the appointmenttimes of the users with a merchant and the geolocation of the users. Thefollowing acts of process 400 may be performed to offer the no-showuser(s) new appointments with minimal interaction from the merchant.

At 402, for a no-show user, the appointment and payment module 140determines if the merchant has a free appointment time slot suitable tooffer to the no-show user. Such a determination may be made based onmany factors such as distance between the no-show user's currentlocation and the location of the appointment, the customer task list orcalendar and/or customer interaction history information. For example,if the no-show user is one hundred (100) miles away, a free appointmentslot one hour from the current time is unlikely to be suitable. Inanother example, the appointment and payment module 140 may eliminatefrom consideration appointment slots where the customer's customer tasklist or calendar indicates that the customer is busy or will be busybefore an estimated end of the appointment (e.g. the customer may haveanother appointment in thirty (30) minutes where the desired service,e.g. a haircut, is estimated to take forty-five (45) minutes). Asmentioned above, the appointment and payment module 140 may analyze thecustomer's past interactions with the merchant (or other merchants) todetermine whether the customer is likely to be interested in particularappointment slots. For example, the appointment and payment module 140may determine that the customer rarely, if ever, has any groomingservices provided between the hours of 4:00 PM and 7:00 AM. As such, theappointment and payment module 140 may treat free appointment slots inthe determined time period as unlikely to be suitable to the customer.

At 404, the appointment and payment module 140 may send the no-showcustomers an offer of the determined free time slot as a replacementappointment. The offer may indicate to the user that the user may acceptthe time slot, reject the time slot or indicate that the user does notwish to reschedule the appointment at this time.

At 406, the appointment and payment module 140 determines if the useraccepted the offered rescheduled appointment. If so, the process movesto 408 and the appointment and payment module 140 creates an appointmentrecord for the replacement appointment of the no-show user. Otherwise,the process moves to 410. At 410, the appointment and payment module 140determines if the user indicated that the user did not wish toreschedule at this time. If so, the process 400 ends. Otherwise, theprocess returns to 402 and a different free time slot, if available, isselected to be offered to the user.

The process 400 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. Numerous other variations are possible.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 500 forhandling change requests to existing appointments. The following actionsdescribed with respect to FIG. 5 may be performed by the computingdevice 112 as shown in FIG. 1.

For context, process 500 may be utilized in the above described scenarioin which four users have a reservation with a restaurant merchant with apreviously set up bill splitting arrangement. The users now desire toadd two additional users to the reservation and modify the billsplitting arrangement accordingly. The following acts of process 500 maybe performed to modify an existing appointment.

At 502, the appointment and payment module 140 may cause the userinteraction module 136 to transmit an appointment reminder to the userdevice(s) 104 of the user(s) 102 associated with an appointment. At 504,the appointment and payment module 140 may receive a response to thereminder that may include a natural language request for one or morechanges to the appointment. In some implementations, the naturallanguage request may take the form of natural language text data (e.g.SMS, e-mail, instant message, etc.), voice data, handwritten data, andso on. At 506, the appointment and payment module 140 may request thenatural language processing module 142 perform natural languageprocessing on the received request to determine if a requested change ispresent in the response, and, if so, what requested change is present.

At 508, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine if thenatural language processing was successful. If not, the process maycontinue to 510. Otherwise, the process may continue to 512.

At 510, the appointment and payment module 140 may request and receiveclarification of the requested change. This may be performed in variousways. For example, in some implementations, the appointment and paymentmodule 140 may request clarification from the originating user. In someimplementations, if portions of the change requests were recognized bythe natural language processing, the clarification request may becustomized to reflect to the recognized portions. For example, if thenatural language processing recognizes that the originating user wishesto add one or more additional users but is unable to determine who theadditional user(s) are, the clarification request may include a querysuch as, “Who would you like to add?” In other implementations, theclarification of requests may take the form of manual recognitionassistance (e.g. human review of the change request). The manual humanreview may be requested and received from the originating user,merchant, a third-party or so on. Once the clarification is received,the process continues to 512.

At 512, the appointment and payment module 140 determines if therequested change requires approval from the merchant. If so, the processcontinues to 514. If merchant approval is not required, the processcontinues to 516. The determination of whether approval from themerchant is required may be based on various types of informationdepending on the implementation. For example, in some implementationsthe appointment records may include indications of what changes shouldbe approved by the merchant and what changes may be automatic.Alternatively or additionally, such rules may be included in thedatabase separate from the appointments. For example, in the abovescenario, previously established rules may set forth that the additionof new users to the reservation may require merchant approval butmodifications to the bill splitting arrangement do not require merchantapproval. In other scenarios, the change may not need merchant approvalbecause the change does not affect the merchant. For example, thepayments may be handled by the computing device(s) 112. In a particularexample, the computing device(s) 112 may be part of a payment processingsystem that acts as an intermediary to the merchant-customertransaction. In such a scenario, the customers may have accounts withthe payment processing system and the payment processing system may havebeen previously informed of the payment sources for the customers.Because the payment processing system is handling the charges, thepayment processing system may verify the change in bill splittingwithout the merchant's involvement.

At 514, the appointment and payment module 140 may instruct the merchantinteraction module 138 to send an approval request to the merchant thatmay request the merchant verify the change is available and that themerchant approves of the change. The process then continues to 518.

At 516, the appointment and payment module 140 may determineautomatically if the change is available. For example, a modification ofthe bill splitting arrangement may not require approval from themerchant and the appointment and payment module 140 may make thedetermination automatically. In another scenario, if the change requestis for a modification to the time at which the user has an appointmentfor a haircut at a salon and the salon in question allows for automaticapproval of time changes based on scheduling information of themerchant, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine if thetime slot requested in the change request is available based on theappointment information 146. Once the appointment and payment module 140has determined if the change is available, the process continues to 518.

At 518, if the change requested is available and, if applicable,approved, the process continues to 520. At 520, the appointment andpayment module 140 may implement the change to the appointment recordstored in the appointment information 146. Otherwise, the processcontinues to 522. At 522, the appointment and payment module 140 maysend a message to the user indicating that the change was unsuccessful.

The process 500 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. Numerous other variations are possible.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 600 forhandling referrals of appointments from an initial, requested merchantto other merchants recommended, endorsed, or trusted by the requestedmerchant. The appointments to be referred may be pre-existing or newlyrequested appointments. The following actions described with respect toFIG. 6 may be performed by the computing device(s) 112 shown in FIG. 1.

At 602, the computing devices 112 may determine if the merchant isunavailable for a newly requested or a previously booked appointment.For example, a merchant may send a status update message to thecomputing device(s) 112 indicating that the merchant is sick andrequesting the computing device(s) 112 refer the merchant's appointmentsfor the day to other merchants. In another scenario, an appointmentrequest may be received for a time slot during which the merchant hasindicated the merchant will be out of town, for which the merchant isalready booked or for a service that the merchant does not offer. If themerchant is determined to be unavailable for the appointment, theprocess 600 may continue to 604. Otherwise, the process 600 continues to606 and the appointment is processed normally such that the newlyrequested appointment is booked or the existing appointment is leftunchanged.

At 604, the computing devices 112 may determine if the merchant hasprovided for approval of automatic referrals (and/or has already set upa referral list of other merchants) or if the merchant will providereferral of users requesting appointments to other merchants on aper-user basis. If the computing devices 112 determine the merchant willapprove and/or handle referrals on a per-user basis, the process 600continues to block 608. Otherwise, the process 600 proceeds to blocks610.

At 608, the appointment and payment module 140 may send a request to therequested merchant for approval to refer the user to another merchantand for an indication of other merchants to which the requested merchantwill refer users. At 610, the appointment and payment module 140 maydetermine merchants that were previously approved by the requestedmerchant as merchants to which the requested merchant will refer users.For example, the requested merchant may have previously provided thecomputing devices 112 with a list of approved merchants for referrals.The level of detail at which the merchant may specify which merchants torefer the users to may vary from implementation to implementation. Forexample, the system may provide for specifying the referral merchantsbased on type of service, user categories (e.g. new customers orestablished customers), and so on. Following 608 or 610, the processcontinues to 612.

At 612, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine which ofthe merchants approved for referrals by the requested merchant areavailable and/or willing to provide the service of the appointment to bereferred. This may be done by analyzing the appointment information 146stored in the database 144 to determine open appointment times.Alternatively or in addition, the other merchants may be queried to seeif they would be willing to accept the referred task.

At 614, the appointment and payment module 140 may send the user anindication of the available and/or willing other merchants. Theindication sent to the user may, in some examples, explicitly indicatethat the requested merchant recommends, endorses, or trusts theavailable and/or willing other merchants. Moreover, in someimplementations, the user may be presented with a ranked list of theavailable and/or willing merchants. The merchants may be ranked onvarious factors such as availability, price, reviews, and so on. At 616,the appointment and payment module 140 may receive an appointmentrequest from the user device, the request indicating an availablemerchant for the appointment. The process 600 may then proceed to 606and process the replacement appointment request normally. Though notshown, in some implementations, the system may provide for communicationbetween the selected other merchant and the initially requestedmerchant. This communication may allow for the initially requestedmerchant to provide the selected other merchant with known informationabout the user, such as history, likes and dislikes, the desiredservice, and the like.

The process 600 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. For example, some implementations may include amerchant to merchant financial agreement or the like. More particularly,the system may include functionality to allow for referral bonuses, feesharing arrangements or the like between the merchants. In anotherexample variation, the system may provide suggested lists of othermerchants for the requested merchant to select for possible referrals.Such a suggested list may be generated based on various types ofinformation, such as the requested merchant's referral history,connections on a social web-site and so on. Numerous other variationsare possible.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 700 forproviding suggestions to merchants of potential customers to which tooffer unbooked appointment slots. The following actions described withrespect to FIG. 7 may be performed by the computing device(s) 112 shownin FIG. 1.

At 702, the appointment and payment module 140 analyzes a merchant'sappointments to determine if there is an unbooked appointment in themerchant's schedule. If not, the process 700 continues to 704 and theappointment and payment module 140 begins analyzing the next merchant'sschedule. If an unbooked time slot is found, the process moves to 706.Depending on the implementation, the time range of the merchant'sschedule being analyzed may vary. For example, the time range may be theimmediate future (e.g. the next few appointment slots or the next fewhours) or the range could be more extensive (e.g. the next few businessdays, months or years). In addition, the appointment and payment module140 may determine types of vacancies in the merchant's schedule andtreat the various types of vacancies differently. For example, themerchant may indicate that regularly vacant slots (e.g. fifty percent ofweeks at 1:30 PM) be offered to new customers at a substantial discountbut that regularly booked slots be offered to new or existing customerat a lesser discount or no discount.

At 706, the appointment and payment module 140 analyzes customerinformation 148 and customer interaction history information 150 todetermine customer(s) that are likely to be interested in the unbookedappointment. For example, the customer information 148 may includecustomers' calendars or other preferences the customer has indicated forgetting a certain appointment done. For example, the customer (i.e. auser 102) may maintain a calendar or task list of items to be done inthe next couple of weeks (e.g. need to get a haircut done, need to setup time for cake tasting for wedding, etc.). The customer information148 may include the task lists or calendars of the customers. Theappointment and payment module 140 analyzes this information todetermine the customer's tasks and availability. Moreover, theappointment and payment module 140 may analyze the customer interactionhistory information 150 to determine patterns of interaction of thecustomers with merchants. For example, the customer interaction historyinformation 150 may include information regarding prior transactionsbetween the customers and the merchants. In some examples, the priortransactions may be a collection of the customers' financialtransactions with the merchants that have been previously been handledby the appointment and payment module 140. In a particular example, theappointment and payment module 140 may determine that a specific userregularly has a haircut with a merchant every three to four weeks andthat it is currently the end of the third week since the user has had ahaircut. If the specific user's calendar also indicates that the user isfree at the time of the unbooked appointment, the appointment andpayment module 140 may determine that the specific user 102 is likely tobe interested in the unbooked appointment. In some implementations, thecustomer information 148 may further include user search histories. Theusers' search histories (or current search(es)) may be processed todetermine what the user is searching for. If the user is searching forservices provided by the merchant, the appointment and payment module140 may determine that the specific user 102 is more likely to beinterested in the unbooked appointment.

At 708, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine promotions(e.g. discounts or special offers), if any, to suggest that the merchantinclude in the offer to the determined customer(s). The determination ofthe discounts to suggest may be based at least in part on thecustomer(s)′ information, the time remaining until the unbookedappointment slot, and so on. For example, if the appointment is for thisafternoon, the appointment and payment module 140 may suggest themerchant offer a 50% discount to the customer(s) while, if theappointment is for next week, the appointment and payment module 140 maysuggest that the merchant offer a 20% discount.

At 710, the appointment and payment module 140 may provide the merchantwith the suggested users and promotions, if any. At 712, the appointmentand payment module 140 may receive a selection from the merchant of acustomer to offer the appointment with any discounts approved bymerchant. At 714, the appointment and payment module 140 may send theindicated offer for the unbooked appointment to the selected customer.The process may then return to 702.

The process 700 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. For example, the above process may be performed inreverse by analyzing the customer information, history and the like todetermine services the user is likely to be interested in. The systemmay then determine unbooked appointments of merchants and suggest theunbooked appointments to the users. In another variation, theappointment and payment module 140 may make offers to the users withoutinteracting with the merchant. For example, instead of presenting themerchant with suggested customers and promotions, the appointment andpayment module 140 may create and send the offers to the determinedusers automatically. Numerous other variations are possible.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 800 forhandling user requests for services from merchants. For example, a user102 may request the computing devices 112 provide the user with bids oroffers from merchants matching one or more parameters that are availableto provide a service at some particular time. The following actionsdescribed with respect to FIG. 8 may be performed by the computingdevice(s) 112 shown in FIG. 1.

At 802, the appointment and payment module 140 may receive a requestfrom a user 102 for matching with a merchant that is available toprovide a service. At 804, the appointment and payment module 140 maydetermine one or more merchants to allow to submit “bids” on the requestfrom the user (e.g., based on merchants' availability or desire, basedon certain parameters provided by the user (times, distance, rating,price range, etc.), and so on.) At 806, the appointment and paymentmodule 140 may send information to the determined merchants regardingthe user's request and requesting the determined merchants submit bidsfor the service. At 808, the appointment and payment module 140 mayreceive one or more acceptances (e.g. bids) from the determinedmerchants. In some implementations, the merchants may be allowed to bidrepeatedly for the user's patronage until a cut off time or similartime. At 810, the appointment and payment module 140 may provide thebids to the user for the user's acceptance. In some implementations, thebids may be filtered or ranked and select bids may be offered to theuser. If the user accepts any of the bids from the merchants, theresulting appointment may be created in a manner similar to thatdescribed above for FIG. 2.

The process 800 described above is only an example provided fordiscussion purposes. Numerous other variations are possible. An examplevariation in which the roles of the merchants and users are reversed isillustrated in and described with regard to FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 900 forhandling merchant requests for bids for the merchant's services fromusers. For example, a merchant may request the computing devices 112provide the merchant with users matching one or more parameters thatdesire a service at some particular time. In a particular example, amobile service provider (e.g. a lawn care service provider) may finish atask early and request the computing device(s) provide the merchant withusers that desire lawn care that will take less than forty-five minuteswithin a radius from the provider's current location. The followingactions described with respect to FIG. 9 may be performed by thecomputing device(s) 112 shown in FIG. 1.

At 902, the appointment and payment module 140 may receive a requestfrom a merchant 106 for matching with a user 102 that desires a service.At 904, the appointment and payment module 140 may determine one or moreusers to allow to submit “bids” on the request from the merchant (e.g.,based on users' availability or desire, based on certain parametersprovided by the merchant (time, distance, rating, price range, etc.),the merchant's travel or work itinerary, and so on.) At 906, theappointment and payment module 140 may send information to thedetermined users regarding the merchant's request and asking thedetermined users to submit bids for the service. At 908, the appointmentand payment module 140 may receive one or more acceptances (e.g. bids)from the determined users. In some implementations, the users may beallowed to bid repeatedly for the merchant's service until a cut offtime or similar time. At 910, the appointment and payment module 140 mayprovide the bids to the merchant for the merchant's acceptance. In someimplementations, the bids may be filtered or ranked and select bids maybe offered to the merchant. If the merchant accepts any of the bids fromthe users, the resulting appointment may be created in a manner similarto that described above for FIG. 2.

As previously stated, each of the above discussed scenarios is merely anexample and many variations are possible. Moreover, many variations ofthe techniques discussed above are possible as well without departingfrom the scope of this disclosure.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms ofimplementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: one or more processors; andone or more computer-readable media storing: a plurality of appointmentrecords each associated with a respective appointment of a plurality ofappointments, wherein a first appointment record is associated with afirst appointment and indicates: (i) an identification of one or morefirst customers associated with the first appointment, (ii) anidentification of a first merchant associated with the firstappointment, (iii) a cost-splitting arrangement for dividing costsassociated with the first appointment among the one or more firstcustomers, and (iv) a time associated with the first appointment; andinstructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein theinstructions program the one or more processors to implement a serviceto: in advance of the first appointment, send a reminder of the firstappointment to one or more customer devices of the one or more firstcustomers; receive a response to the reminder, the response includingnatural language data; perform natural language processing on theresponse to determine a requested change in the first appointmentincluded in the natural language data, the requested change including: a net increase in the number of customers associated with the firstappointment, the net increase based at least in part on an addition ofone or more second customers to the first appointment; and  an updatedcost-splitting arrangement for dividing the costs associated with thefirst appointment among the one or more first customers and the one ormore second customers; request that the first merchant approve theaddition of the one or more second customers to the first appointment;receive approval of the addition from the first merchant; and send anindication of the addition to a merchant device of one or more merchantdevices of the first merchant, the one or more customer devices of theone or more first customers, and one or more customer devices of the oneor more second customers; determine that the first appointment has beencompleted; and process payment from the one or more first customers andthe one or more second customers to the first merchant based at least inpart on the updated cost-splitting arrangement.
 2. The system as recitedin claim 1, wherein the instructions program the one or more processorsto further implement the service to, in advance of the firstappointment: determine a portion of the requested change for which torequest additional information; and send a request for the additionalinformation to at least one of: at least one of the one or more of themerchant devices of the first merchant; or at least one of the one ormore customer devices of the one or more first customers or the one ormore customer devices of the one or more second customers.
 3. The systemas recited in claim 1, wherein to process payment includes: sending oneor more respective requests for payments from individual customeraccounts associated with respective ones of the one or more firstcustomers and of the one or more second customers based at least in parton the updated cost-splitting arrangement; receiving approval of the oneor more respective requests for payments; and depositing fundsassociated with the one or more respective requests for payments into amerchant account associated with the first merchant.
 4. The system asrecited in claim 1, wherein the instructions program the one or moreprocessors to further implement the service to, in advance of the firstappointment: perform natural language processing to determine a secondrequested change in the first appointment included in other naturallanguage data included in the response; determine that a preference ofthe first merchant indicates the second requested change is to beprocessed without merchant verification; and implement the secondrequested change in the first appointment record for the firstappointment without requesting verification from the first merchant. 5.One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructionsexecutable by one or more processors, wherein the instructions programthe one or more processors to implement a service to: in advance of afirst appointment of a plurality of appointments, receive, by theservice, a request regarding the first appointment, the firstappointment associated with a first merchant, one or more firstcustomers, and a cost-splitting arrangement for dividing costsassociated with the first appointment among the one or more firstcustomers; perform natural language processing of natural language dataincluded in the request; determine a requested change in the firstappointment included in the request based on a result of the naturallanguage processing, the requested change including a net increase inthe number of customers associated with the first appointment, the netincrease based at least in part on an addition of one or more secondcustomers to the first appointment, and an updated cost-splittingarrangement for dividing the costs associated with the first appointmentamong the one or more first customers and the one or more secondcustomers; access a first appointment record regarding the firstappointment, the first appointment record stored in a data store;determine, based at least in part on the first appointment record storedin the data store, whether the requested change may be performed; andupdate the first appointment record stored in the data store with therequested change based on determining that the requested change may beperformed; determine that the first appointment has been completed; andprocess payment from the one or more first customers to the firstmerchant, based at least in part on the updated cost-splittingarrangement included in the first appointment record.
 6. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, whereinthe data store stores a plurality of appointment records associated withrespective appointments of the plurality of appointments, the firstappointment record regarding the first appointment including anidentification of the one or more first customers associated with thefirst appointment, an identification of the first merchant, and a timefor the first appointment.
 7. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructionsprogram the one or more processors to further implement the service to:in response to determining the requested change in the firstappointment, determine a portion of the requested change for which torequest additional information; and send an information request for theadditional information to one or more of a merchant device of the firstmerchant or one or more customer devices of the one or more firstcustomers associated with the first appointment.
 8. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, whereinthe instructions program the one or more processors to further implementthe service to: send a reminder of the first appointment to one or morecustomer devices of the first customers associated with the firstappointment, wherein the request regarding the first appointment isreceived subsequent to the reminder.
 9. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructionsprogram the one or more processors to further implement the service to,in advance of the first appointment: perform natural language processingto determine a second requested change in the first appointment includedin other natural language data included in the received request;determine that a preference of the merchant associated with the firstappointment indicates the second requested change is to be implementedwithout merchant verification; and implement the second requested changein the first appointment record without requesting verification from themerchant.
 10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media asrecited in claim 5, wherein the instructions program the one or moreprocessors to further implement the service to, in advance of the firstappointment: perform natural language processing to determine a secondrequested change in the first appointment included in other naturallanguage data included in the received request; determine that a type ofthe second requested change is to be implemented without merchantverification, the type of the second requested change including afurther updated cost-splitting arrangement for dividing the costsassociated with the first appointment among the one or more firstcustomers; and implement the second requested change in the firstappointment record without requesting verification from the merchant.11. A method comprising: in advance of a first appointment, receiving arequest regarding the first appointment, the first appointmentassociated with a first merchant, one or more first customers, and acost-splitting arrangement for dividing costs associated with the firstappointment among the one or more first customers; determining arequested change in the first appointment included in the receivedrequest, wherein the requested change includes a net increase in thenumber of customers associated with the first appointment, the netincrease based at least in part on an addition of one or more secondcustomers to the first appointment and an updated cost-splittingarrangement for dividing costs associated with the first appointmentamong the one or more first customers and the one or more secondcustomers; determining whether the requested change may be performed;and updating a first appointment record for the first appointment basedat least in part on a determination that the requested change may beperformed; determining that the first appointment has been completed;and processing one or more payments to the first merchant from the oneor more first customers and the one or more second customers, based atleast in part on the updated cost-splitting arrangement.
 12. The methodas recited in claim 11, further comprising: performing natural languageprocessing of natural language data included in the request, wherein therequested change in the first appointment is determined based on aresult of the natural language processing of the natural language data.13. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising in advance ofthe first appointment: requesting that the first merchant associatedwith the first appointment verify the requested change is available; andreceiving verification from the first merchant that the requested changeis available.
 14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein processingthe one or more payments includes: sending one or more respectiverequests for payments from individual customer accounts associated withrespective ones of the one or more first customers; receiving approvalof the requests for payments; and depositing funds associated with therequests for payments into a merchant account associated with the firstmerchant.
 15. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising inadvance of the first appointment: performing natural language processingto determine a second requested change in the first appointment includedin other natural language data included in the received request;determining that a preference of the first merchant associated with thefirst appointment indicates the second requested change is to beprocessed without merchant verification; and implementing the secondrequested change in the first appointment record without requestingverification from the merchant.
 16. The system as recited in claim 1,wherein the natural language data is text data, voice data, orhandwritten data.
 17. The system as recited in claim 1, whereindetermining that the first appointment has been completed comprises atleast in part determining that one or more customer devices associatedwith the one or more first customers and that one or more customerdevices associated with the one or more second customers are locatedoutside of a threshold geographic distance from a merchant device of thefirst merchant.
 18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia as recited in claim 5, wherein processing payment from the one ormore first customers to the first merchant is based at least in part ondetermining that the first appointment has been completed.
 19. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 18,wherein determining that the first appointment has been completedcomprises at least in part determining that one or more customer devicesassociated with the one or more first customers and that one or morecustomer devices associated with the one or more second customers arelocated outside of a threshold geographic distance from a merchantdevice of the first merchant.
 20. The method as recited in claim 11,wherein determining that the first appointment has been completedcomprises at least in part determining that one or more customer devicesassociated with the one or more first customers and that one or morecustomer devices associated with the one or more second customers arelocated outside of a threshold geographic distance from a merchantdevice of the first merchant.